Some great lessons come to us not as long, drawn out ordeals born in pain, tears and suffering, but in moments of comic relief where we’ve been made the butt of a cosmic joke.
Let me share a story with you I’ve shared before. A fun reminder of an important lesson.
Clean Up Your Own Garbage
My story begins when I was in New York on my way to the airport.
My cab was just cresting the Triborough Bridge when the driver pulled hard into the right lane just in time to avoid an oncoming car that had suddenly swerved into our lane.
My heart beat hard as it’s a 135-foot drop into the East River below.
All very harrowing!
Then, of all things, the reckless driver rolled down his window and began berating my cab driver — as if HE were the cause of this near collision.
So I rolled down my window and began angrily berating him.
I was pissed!
Then, a calm peace descended upon the cab.
The cabbie, with a quiet repose, smiled at the enraged driver and waved him off with friendly salute.
He then turned to me and said, “Poor soul, just packing around too much garbage. In my my business,” he said, “I see too many people packing around too much garbage, always on the lookout for where to dump it.”
Clean Up Your Own Garbage
Not bad advice, huh?
And yet — how easy it is to collect negative thoughts, lingering resentments and recycled anger and never deposit it.
- Too often I’ve forgotten the lesson from the cab driver.
- Too often I’ve rolled down my window and shook my fist at life.
- Too often I’ve carried around the garbage of others.
- Too often I’ve failed to deposit my own garbage.
But thankfully, there came the moment when I was made the butt of a great cosmic joke and finally learned the cabbie’s lesson.
Clean Up Your Own Garbage
I had just completed writing my 4th Step moral inventory and was preparing to unload 36 years of accumulated baggage with my sponsor during my 5th step.
Amongst this baggage I had a big load of garbage that I needed to dump. My question was —
- how?
- where?
- when?
Then…
It was a Monday morning and I had an important meeting with a group of bankers. I had worked all weekend on my presentation.
Oh, how I wanted to make a good impression.
When it was time to leave for the meeting I grabbed the bag of smelly garbage from my kitchen, thinking I would dump it into the garbage can on my way to the car.
I sped off with my mind in a whirl, firmly focused on my upcoming presentation.
I exited the freeway, drove directly into the bank’s parking garage, and immediately went up the elevator to the top floor executive boardroom.
- I felt like a lion ready to roar!
- A bull ready to charge!
- A tiger ready to spring!
Upon exiting the elevator I was immediately ushered into the boardroom where the bankers were seated around a beautiful mahogany conference table.
I readied myself to present.
It’s then I took note of the puzzled looks on the faces of the bankers.
I looked down.
There, on the conference table, lay my bag of garbage.
The garbage I had failed to place in the dumpster!
I looked up at those assembled, looked back at my garbage, and heard uproarious laughter burst forth from around the table.
This went on for a while before I excused myself —
— to dump my garbage.
When I returned to the boardroom it was clear, among other things, that I had stumbled upon the ice-breaker to end all ice-breakers.
When we got to the Q&A, all anybody wanted to talk about was my bag of garbage and how I so resolutely deposited it on their beautiful conference table.
How many times had I carried around with me the garbage that had accumulated in my head, ready to deposit it as
- an unkind remark
- an angry response
- a cynical comment
How good it felt to rid myself of my garbage.
How grateful I was to finally learn the lesson taught to me years earlier by that New York cab driver:
Clean Up Your Own Garbage
Just a thought…
Pat